What is a typical 300 unit Garden Condo Complex Management Fee?

Answer 1

If the management company does no work, then the management company earns no fee.

If the management company pays bills, hires and manages vendors, requests and evaluates bids from insurance companies, advises you on interpretation of your governing documents, keeps the board's actions in alignment with the state condominium law, develops and monitors the annual budget, stands between errant residents and their board-member neighbors, then the management company has earned a fee. (The assumption is that each of these tasks is done well and within budget.)

Suggesting that there is a fixed fee per unit as a management fee is folly, and represents naive thinking on the part of the board.

Here's how to determine how much to pay a management company:

• Depending on where the association is in its age: new construction, in the declarant control period, working with construction defect issues -- or well-established, well-run, a calm, happy community, define the business tasks to be completed.
• Determine which skills are available from the volunteer board members or committees made up of the membership with expertise that can advise the board and facilitate performance of the tasks on the list.
• Interview and verify that any management company candidate can complete the remaining tasks on the list and has a reputation for delivering on their promise/ contracts.
• Obtain bids from candidates for their price for each task or group of tasks.

You can use the article, below, to help you identify the work to be done. It may be centric to Washington state, but the basics have value in most any condominium community in North America.